Strangely enough the collapsing world economy might give Gordon the opportunity to shine in just the way you've illustrated. Northern Rock doesn't seem so unique in an international context.

At least no one has lost a laptop this week .....

At the risk of winding you up Bob I have to point something out - when Cameron 'bests' Brown in these little set pieces it's theatre and froth and not something to get worked up about but when Brown has a better day it's worthy of a post?

"Brown parried each question easily and smacked it back with venom" True but I'd suggest it's his all too public venomous dislike of Cameron that explains why he's behind in the polls....

...."he was on his home ground..." and ..."he was clearly in his comfort zone..."
Agree with you there Bob. Unsurprisingly, ConHomers are hopefully telling eachother that ill health will shortly finish his career. They wish!
The watching public will have witnessed a strong solid performance by the PM, and Cameron's jokes and soundbites are ...well...just a bit of silly billy really.
Even Andrew Neil is losing patience with the second hand humour and looking for some policy.
Where's the beef Cammers?

Cassilis, I think you will find I still said it was all just theatre and of no real consequence to the outside world... but I did take YOUR point that it may be important to MPs in terms of confidence.

Chaz... I don't think Brown is out of the woods quite yet. Cameron's problem seems to be catch 22: He cannot win without damaging Brown on the economy... and he cannot damage Brown on the economy so his chance of winning suffer.

Doesn't Gordo have a comb, or if he does why doesn't he use it? It looked as though he had just got out of bed.

It might be nice if he actually answered a question instead of his shifty responses.

Not a good session from Cameron but Gordo is likely to be kippered by Northern Croc.

I have just watched a replay of PMQs, and if you think that Brown won the contest and parried Cameron's attacks easily, you will believe that Brown has won the next general election a year after Cameron has been summoned to Buckingham Palace to form the next government.

Gordon Brown inherited an extremely strong economy in 1997 and thankfully resisted the urge to destroy it for four years. Since 2001 however, he has been engaged in the traditional Labour "tax and spend" policy and, as a result, Britain now has desperate public finances. His chant of "An end to boom and bust." has provided us with...boom and bust. Couple that with the most catastrophic mismanagement of all government departments by the most useless line-up of muppets ever assembled to pretend to be ministers (Blunkett, Clarke, Hewitt, Harman, Kelly, Byers, Hain, Blears, Primarolo...shit I am losing the will to live) and it is clear to every rational person that all we need to do is wait for the next election in 2010 to clear this detritus from the corridors of power and install the Conservatives for another eighteen years.

Fortunately (although, not for you) Tories were saying this in 1999 and 2003... but look where that got you. The memories of the shambolic Major years and the 'war years' under Baroness Hardnose are deeply ingrained in the British people. Just ask Wee Wullie Hague and Michael Howard.

If you think the chinless Eton boy is going to do any better you are delusional young chas.

"If you think the chinless Eton boy is going to do any better you are delusional young chas."

Since you think someones background is a vaild form of attack, if you think Gordon McScot is going to beat Cameron on the economy with the highest budget deficit in the first world, you need help

You may not like this Bob because you think I am a Tory, but I think it's you that is delusional on the grounds of pure demographics. The distinctly bad memories of Major exist in a very small subset of people that we severely impacted by the sudden, but exceptionally short rise in interest rates resulting in negative equity. Not everyone was hit by that, and those that were in many cases are now home owners that are very nervous that it is about to happen again.

However, there is also an ever growing demographic of the public that have zero effective memory of the years you mention, and in fact, they're also the very people that if you explain to them that before the so-called "war years" it took two months to get a telephone line and you had to hire a telephone unit from British Telecom they look at you astounded at the idiocy of the pre-Thatcherite world.

Basically Bob, you need to stop living in the past and realise that there are growing numbers out there that hear what you say and shrug because they have no personal knowledge of it. That's not to say that it might not have been terrible, or even marvelllous, but it is to say that they're not going to base any decision they make on the politics of people who no longer in power. Thinking that they will actually denigrates their intelligence and frankly you;re denigrating you're own by constantly applying these silly fallacious circumstantial arguments about how someone today can be directly linked to event in the past by mere association.

It's a bit like Gordon Brown constant lie that Cameron was a "chief economic advisor" on Black Wednesday. Everyone on both sides knows it's bollocks, but perpetuating it holds the intelligence of the voter in contempt. It's one of the main reason that us ordinary folk have a tendency to say "you politicians are all the same" because when we do it we're not talking about you're political beliefs, but rather the way you treat the electorate and blur the line of reality with rhetoric.

dizzy... sorry son, but your demographics are all to cock. People over 35 are much more likely to vote. They were at least 25-26 years-old when the cones hotline man bit the dust. They now have kids in primary and secondary schools and they will have their own memories of the years of leaking roofs and overfilled classrooms under the old witch.

You see, many people (and those most likely to vote don't forget), remember the Major and Thatcher years very well. Perhaps you just have a particularly bad memory - early onset dementia maybe? - but it was only 11 years ago. One of the reasons Major was still (with some success) batting on about the 'winter of discontent'14 years later was because it had its resonance with middle-aged, middle England.

Well Cameron knew of course that sticking to the obvious subject was going to allow Brown to prepare which he is good at .He is not good at thinking quickly or reacting as we see with yet another ditherism over Hain. Cameron knows that the relatively stupid Brown can keep up here but he does it because these are the hard yards. An inch is yard on this territory whereas making the lumbering old Class warrior look silly is easy and un productive .Brown?s only saving poll rating is a residual trustworthiness. For some of the reasons you mention. I don?t quite agree with Dizzy here but it is not just the ERM it is the general sense that the prediction that Socialism would ruin the economy have annually failed to come true which has currency . Brown was, of course, keener on the ERM than Major but the details are unimportant its more the general wealth in the world and the memory that things were worse . I agree with Dizzy in the sense that events surrounding Soros and so on are only remembered by those who can decode them ,., not by swing voters.

All that is really required is to keep talking about Northern wreck , keep the economy in the news as it turns down the same magical osmosis will happen in reveres e but in brown`s case it will be terminal because he has nothing else which recommends him to voters at all .

I think you have misread this Bob. Pawn sacrifice , takes Queen.

"... and none of them giving even a hint as to what the Tories would do if they were in office."

It's amazing how often people are allowed to get away with this these days.

The tortuous gags will do for Cameron, just as they did for Hague, thank the good Lord above us.